Appendix
689
the service. Though offered in His name, the sun god, and not Jehovah,
was the real object of their adoration
.
The worship of Apis was accompanied with the grossest licentious-
ness, and the Scripture record indicates that the calf worship by the
Israelites was attended with all the license usual in heathen worship.
We read: “They rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offer-
ings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to
drink, and rose up to play.”
Exodus 32:6
. The Hebrew word rendered
“to play” signifies playing with leaping, singing, and dancing. This
dancing, especially among the Egyptians, was sensual and indecent.
The word rendered “corrupted” in the next verse, where it is said, “thy
people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted
themselves,” is the same that is used in
Genesis 6:11, 12
, where we
read that the earth was corrupt, “for all flesh had corrupted his way
upon the earth.” This explains the terrible anger of the Lord, and why
He desired to consume the people at once.
Note 5. Page 329. The Ten Commandments were the “covenant”
to which the Lord referred when, in proposing a covenant with Israel,
He said, “If ye will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant,” etc.
Exodus 19:5
. The ten commandments were termed God’s “covenant”
before the covenant was made with Israel. They were not an agreement
made, but something which God commanded them to perform. Thus
[761]
the Ten Commandments—God’s covenant—became the basis of the
covenant made between Him and Israel. The Ten Commandments in
all their details are “all these words,” concerning which the covenant
was made. See
Exodus 24:8
.
Note 6. Page 354. When a sin offering was presented for a priest or
for the whole congregation, the blood was carried into the holy place
and sprinkled before the veil and placed upon the horns of the Golden
Altar. The fat was consumed upon the altar of burnt offering in the
court, but the body of the victim was burned without the camp. See
Leviticus 4:1-21
.
When, however, the offering was for a ruler or for one of the
people, the blood was not taken into the holy place, but the flesh was
to be eaten by the priest, as the Lord directed Moses: “The priest that
offereth it for sin shall eat it: In a holy place shall it be eaten, in the
court of the tent of meeting.”
Leviticus 6:26
, R.V. See also
Leviticus
4:22-35
.